ldom answers; yet to the last they always
made stout fight for themselves; walked the stage in a high manner; and
surely might be said to quit it creditably, leaving such a Brandenburg
behind them, chiefly of their making, during the Two Centuries that had
been given them before the night came.

There were plenty of Ascanier Cousins still extant in those parts, Saxon
dignitaries, Anhalt dignitaries, lineal descendants of Albert the Bear;
to some of whom, in usual times, Albert's inheritance would naturally
have been granted. But the times were of battle, uncertainty, contested
election: and the Ascaniers, I perceive, had rather taken Friedrich of
Austria's side, which proved the losing one. Kaiser Ludwig DER BAIER
would appoint none of these; Anti-Kaiser Friedrich's appointments, if
he made any, could be only nominal, in those distant Northern parts.
Ludwig, after his victory of Muhldorf, preferred to consider the
Electorate of Brandenburg as lapsed, lying vacant, ungoverned these
three years; and now become the Kaiser's again. Kaiser, in consequence,
gave it to his Son; whose name also is Ludwig: the date of the
Investiture is 1323 (year after that victory of Muhldorf); a date
unfortunate to Brandenburg. We come now into a Line of BAVARIAN
Markgraves, and then of LUXEMBURG ones; both of which are of fatal
significance to Brandenburg.

The Ascanier Cousins, high Saxon dignitaries some of them, gloomed mere
disappointment, and protested hard; but could not mend the matter, now
or afterwards. Their Line went out in Saxony too, in course of time;
gave place to the WETTINS, who are still there. The Ascanier had to be
content with the more pristine state of acquisitions,--high pedigrees,
old castles of Ascanien and Ballenstadt, territories of Anhalt or what
else they had;--and never rose again to the lost height, though the race
still lives, and has qualities besides its pedigree. We said the "Old
Dessauer," Leopold Prince of Anhalt-Dessau, was the head of it in
Friedrich Wilhelm's time; and to this day he has descendants. Catharine
II. of Russia was of Anhalt-Zerbst, a junior branch. Albert the Bear,
if that is of any use to him, has still occasionally notable
representatives.

Ludwig junior, Kaiser Ludwig the Bavarian's eldest son, was still under
age when appointed Kurfurst of Brandenburg in 1323: of course he had
a "STATEHOLDER" (Viceregent, STATTHALTER); then, and afterwards in
occasional absences of his, a series of